The Phoenix Gambit
by TheForgottenSpartan
Summary: After a failed attack on Alastor Moody, Dumbledore reactivates the Order of the Phoenix. The attack on the World Cup of 1994 and Harry being entered into the Triwizard Tournament Forces his hand. He, along with the Order, use an ancient ritual to summon help from another world. The war for control of Wizarding Britain is about to begin and as per usual Harry is right in the middle.


This is an AU in which Hogwarts education starts at fourteen instead of eleven. Some events prior to the start of Harry's Hogwarts education happens three years before it does in canon as a result. Harry was born in 1977 and his parents murdered in 1978. However, barring ages, most events remain unchanged. I do not have in depth knowledge of the HP, so if ages of character are incorrect chalk it up to AU. Everyone is likely to be acting OOC, because to me all of these characters are just blank canvases. The level of magic seen in canon is depressing, so everyone is getting a power boost and a skill increase, including the Death Eaters. It's not interesting if the bag villains get smashed every single fight. I can't wait to make Lucius Malfoy a badass. A note on the Dursleys, I have seen almost every portrayal of them in existence, from criminally abusive rapists to good law abiding citizens who take him in as family. For this story specifically, I am going to tone down how badly he was treated. Abuse does things to people, and three extra years or abuse, even at the canon level, would change Harry in ways that I couldn't do justice to. Similarly, I am toning down the house rivalry to a reasonable level, some fics write it so that in universe merely associating with a member from an opposing house *cough* Slytherin *cough* causes students to be ostracized immediately. That will not be happening. Whenever something is spoken and the person is referred to as just Dumbledore, it's Albus speaking. This chapter has a lot of exposition in it, but it's all important and I wanted to get the major background changes out of the way. Finally, I apologize for not having an update to the stories I said I would, this and another idea I just couldn't get out of my head. Any update to this will be sporadic and based on when inspiration hits.

Updated this chapter, I was unsatisfied with where I left the ending. Some minor mistakes were corrected.

November 9th, 1994

The glow of the full moon shone down on Hogwarts Castle, illuminating the castle grounds and the Forbidden Forest. In the dead of night, the recently reactivated Order of the Phoenix was gathered in the Great Hall, lit by only the light of magically created artificial moon on the ceiling. The tables, barring the staff table which was covered in books and scrolls, were shoved to the sides and a giant spaced cleared out in the middle. A giant runic circle, forty-nine feet in diameter, filled the empty space. Each rune painstakingly carved into the stone floor. Preparations for the ritual were being completed by various member as Albus Dumbledore, along with Alastor Moody and Emmeline Vance, triple checked the reference books and scrolls to make sure that everything had been done correctly as specified by the ritual instructions. They had been working on this ever since Harry's name had come out of the Goblet of Fire eight days ago. Moody looked up from the ancient text, his ever present paranoia making itself known, and said, "Albus, I know we've been through this already, but are you sure this is the correct course of action We could be making a new enemy."

"You know as well as I that we have no better option," Dumbledore replied, his eyes devoid of their normal twinkle, "we cannot leave everything on the shoulders of one boy when we can easily stack the deck in his favor. You all know he is alive, and what he has done to stay that way. I would have liked to have had more years to prepare Harry, but Voldemort's recent activity is forcing my hand. Entering Harry's name in the Goblet is a blatant assassination attempt, though how he managed to penetrate the wards and do so escapes me."

Moody growled in frustration and responded, "I know that Albus, it just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. We are ripping someone away from their friends and family, from their home. They will have already fought this war once, why would anyone want to fight it again?"

"Will all due respect Alastor, Albus," Emmeline interjected, "Will you both please shut your yaps? We can hardly expect this person to arrive in fighting condition if they get torn to bloody shreds while they are coming through the portal. The Order has already discussed this at length, and it's going to happen. The best we can do is compensate whoever we drag here, stop Voldemort for good, and then send them back home alive and in one piece." The two aged men looked at their longtime friend and chuckled, the talented witch's behavior reminding them of a similar situation back during the war with Grindelwald. Vance pointedly ignored their mirth and scanned an ancient scroll one final time. She put down the scroll and looked across the hall at Flitwick and raised a questioning eyebrow at him. He responded with a visible, positive nod. She let out a sigh and turned towards Dumbledore and Moody, "Alright, everything is ready. Let's get this over with shall we?" The two turned serious instantly, a hard look in the war veterans' eyes.

Dumbledore spoke out to the assembled force, "Take your positions around the circle, we are ready to begin." The gathered members, numbering close to two dozen, gathered around the ritual circle at equal intervals. They began to channel their magic into the ritual circle empowering the runes, which began to glow an eerie blue color. The blue glow started directly in front of each person in the activation nexuses, and slowly spread around the circle. Once all the runes were lit they began to chant in unison, their voices melding together perfectly assisted by magic, "Eni weya nos stifulri, genvi aloest ratu denost muntra!" Answering their call, their will, the collected magical energy shifted color from blue to a deep purple. It swirled out of the runes and into the air until it was ten feet above the ground spinning rapidly in a perfect ring. An unseen force pulled the energy towards the center, first a few small wisps, but swiftly turning into a torrent of power. The energy continued to draw into the center until it was but a small, dark purple dot. The air visibly was visibly distorted as eldritch energy suffused the air. The small dot widened first into a jagged tear, then a swirling purple and black vortex. A few of the weaker Order members were heavily sweating from the strain, but did not falter each knowing the dire consequences of failure. The first sign of success was the loud, clearly human, female screaming. The second was said female falling through the portal and onto the floor with an audible thump, screaming cut off by sudden impact with the floor. The portal imploded and disappeared with a pop, but left no lasting damage. Several members fell to their hands and knees panting heavily from exertion.

Dumbledore waved his wand, absentmindedly repairing the floor and removing all traces of the ritual, and stepped forward cautiously to examine the individual they had summoned. The person was clearly a woman, and had deep crimson red hair reaching her shoulders, a shade that he hadn't seen in anything other than pictures in seventeen years. She wore a black turtleneck, a pair of denim jeans, and a pair of black combat boots. "Lily?" he asked, not quite believing his eyes. The woman pushed herself up, groaning in pain.

The woman, still not having looked up, replied, "No, that's my mother. My name is Sarah. What the bloody hell just hap-" The woman, who Albus now tentatively as Sarah, stopped talking abruptly as she looked up towards him. "D-Dumbledore?" she stammered in shock, "No it can't be, the real Dumbledore is dead." Sarah was up on her feet as fast as one could blink, wand tip glowing a sickly blue color as she prepared to curse the person she assumed to be impersonating the her former headmaster. Dumbledore stopped in his tracks and held his hands up in surrender hoping to placate the irate woman, wand already back it's holster on his forearm. If Albus was honest with himself he was impressed with her reflexes, she had obviously seen a lot of combat. He examined Sarah closely, his eyes widening when he looked into hers. They were a piercing emerald green, identical to the color of the death curse. The Order members that were still standing quickly pointing their own wands at the threat to their leader.

"Stand down immediately or we will take you out with force." Snape commanded. Sarah twirled around towards him even more shocked than before.

"Uncle Severus?!" She exclaimed, though it was more of a question than a statement. Severus himself, along with the rest of the Order, did not respond out of shock. "What the hell is going on?" she shouted.

"I believe I can answer that, but perhaps we should take this to my office?" Dumbledore suggested. Sarah turned back around and stared at him. Might as well, she thought to herself, it'll be easier to escape with less of them here anyway.

Sarah glared at the gathered Order and said, "Fine but you have some serious explaining to do. You have some serious stones dragging me back to Hogwarts and impersonating dead Order members, especially my godfather and uncles." She gestured towards Sirius, Remus, and Snape respectively.

Dumbledore motioned for the Order to stand down and led the way from the Great Hall to his office. Vance, Moody, and Snape followed behind Sarah. There was a tense silence in the air as they passed through the empty halls of the castle, nobody spoke. The magical gargoyle automatically moved aside as Dumbledore stopped in front of it, revealing a platform large enough for several people. The group entered the hidden alcove, the platform spiraling upwards towards the office. When it stopped at the top, Dumbledore unlocked the door and ushered them all inside. It looked much the same as Sarah remembered from her Hogwarts years. The room's walls were lined with bookshelves packed bottom to top with ancient looking tomes. Animated portraits of past headmasters lined the wallspace not covered by shelves. Albus' wooden desk, with its clawed feet and cluttered with paperwork and the ever-present bowl of lemon drops, sat in between the dual staircase that lead up to the second floor. Fawkes sat upon his perch off to the side resting. Instead of taking the seat behind the desk, Albus conjured several plush armchairs facing each other. Another wave of his wand and the fireplace roared to life, providing warmth to the room. Only Severus remained standing, the others took a seat. Albus floated the dish of yellow candy over to Sarah. "Would you like a lemon drop?" he asked.

"Sure." Sarah replied, plucking one of the yellow balls of sugar from the offered bowl. She swished it around in her mouth for a bit, then relaxed into the chair.

"I assure you I am Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore and am very much alive and well, however I am not your Albus." he began to explain. She looked at him quizzically but her body language did not indicate she was dismissing him outright. "It is good you know of the Order already as that means you likely already know of Voldemort and the prophecy, which will save us much time."

Sarah scoffed at him and said, "Well now I know you're full of shit. Voldemort's dead, I killed him myself at the end of the war. But do go on, finish your explanation. This is the most amusing kidnapping attempt in ages."

The information that the red haired woman had killed Voldemort did not phase the Order, rather it made them all internally sigh in relief because it meant they had succeeded. "My dear that may be true in your world, but it is not in ours," Dumbledore continued, "We have performed a ritual to summon help from another world to combat the Voldemort of this one, as he is beyond our ability to defeat." Sarah put her face into her hands upon hearing this and nearly screamed. She motioned for the old man to continue with one hand, the other still clutching her face.

The legendary twinkle returned to Albus' eyes as he said "You seem to be taking this rather well. May I ask what your name is?"

Sarah drummed her fingers on the armrest for a few moments before responding, "My name is Sarah Jasmine Potter, and I am the Woman-Who-Conquered. But based on the blasted twinkle in your eyes I am guessing you already figured at least part of that out. This would only be the latest ridiculous thing to happen to me in my life, being torn away from my home to another world by a purple vortex hardly beats anything that happened during my years at Hogwarts. Besides, it's magic anything is possible. At least I know you're actually Dumbledore now, it's the bloody twinkle." Moody and Vance laughed at the last statement. Dumbledore's eyes began twinkling even harder in response, and drew a chuckle out of Sarah. The tense atmosphere that had filled the air broke. As the laughing died down, Sarah suddenly became very serious and spoke in a voice that promised violence if the answer she received was not satisfactory, "I presume you have a way of sending me back. It would be a shame if you ripped my from my homeworld, expected me to solve you problems, and then couldn't send me back."

"Of course we can!" Emmeline said defensively, offended that Sarah thought to little of them, "We wouldn't have summoned you if we couldn't send you back! What kind of people do you think we are?"

Sarah looked at the older woman and quirked an eyebrow, "I think I have no bloody idea who you are other than some of your names and faces, and even then some of you look different than you did in my world. I've decided to give you all the benefit of the doubt seeing as your Dumbledore isn't like mine. In all of five minutes he has told me more about what is going on here than my Dumbledore told me about how to stop Voldemort in my entire seven years at Hogwarts. Hell, Albus mentioned the prophecy in front of you. My Dumbledore would have given me the disappointed grandfather routine complete with a lecture for mentioning it nevermind telling anyone about, even members of the order. So go ahead fill me in, I've decided to help you out." The Order members were pleased to hear that. Although several were concerned about what she had said about her Dumbledore, none more so than Albus himself.

"I'm sure we all have questions for you, but it would be polite of us to answer yours first," Albus said diplomatically, "Back in 1978 Voldemort targeted the Potter family based of a partial prophecy given to him by Severus. You must understand that Severus joined the Death Eaters under my orders to serve as my spy from the beginning. The leaking of the prophecy was all part of plan to trap him that the Potter's had agreed to take part in. We placed them, and the Longbottom's who were the other potential target, under the Fidelius Charm and prepared another safe house to lure him in. We even tried to add an extra layer of protection by switching the secret keeper from Sirius to Peter, unfortunately we did not know at the time that Peter was a traitor. We thought they were safe behind the extensive wards and the charm. That Halloween, the night they were killed, all of the active members were at the other safehouse lying in wait. We sent Severus back." Dumbledore paused and looked at Severus.

Snape didn't look happy about it, but took up the tale anyway. "When I arrived to inform the Dark Lord I was informed that another Death Eater had already delivered news of the Potter's location half an hour before I arrived. I left the manor Voldemort was using as a headquarters and sent a Patronus to Dumbledore, then immediately apparated to the safe house in Godric's Hollow, but I was too late, the front door was caved in along with most of the surround wall. A large explosion blew out a side of the second story as I approached the house. I rushed into the house only to find James' dead body by the stairs, the entire first floor was nearly destroyed. I heard crying and rushed up the stairs. I burst into the nursery and saw Harry floating Lily's dead body towards his crib. I stunned him and stabilized the house so it didn't collapse." Snape's hands were clenched and he was glaring at the floor.

Sarah spoke up before he could beat himself up over it any longer, "Don't blame yourself. You took a calculated risk and it failed." She looked Dumbledore in the eye, "Do you know how Harry survived that night?"

"Lily also had a trick up her sleeve. She performed an experimental ritual that powered itself on Voldemort's own magic, from what I could gather James bought her time to finish it. I am not quite sure of the exact mechanics of it, but nothing other than a scorch mark on floor remained of Voldemort's original body." Dumbledore explained.

"I notice that you call him Voldemort and not Tom," Sarah spoke her observation aloud, Why is that?"

Dumbledore's face took on a dark look, "He ceased to be Tom Riddle when he destroyed his own soul for power. The young man I taught transfiguration to is much different from the monster we now fight."

Sarah stood up and walked over to a window, "I presume you want me to help you eliminate Voldemort, barring that you want me to at least train Harry and make sure he survives?"

"Yes." Dumbledore didn't dance around the point.

An errant thought popped into Sarah's head. She turned away from the window and back towards the four. "Do you have any spies among you?"

Moody answered this one, "No."

Sarah narrowed her eyes, "Are you sure?"

"Absolutely." the gruff reply came quickly. "After the unsuccessful attack on me in July Albus recalled the old guard into active duty. All of us were checked for mind magic and potions including polyjuice. We were placed on high alert and Albus, along with Emmaline, began researching the ritual we used tonight as a last resort if things started going south."

Sarah accepted his answer, the tension flowed out of her. "What made you decide to call me?" At that question Dumbledore removed his glasses and rubbed his temples.

"Mr. Potter's name was entered into the Goblet of Fire," Dumbledore let out a deep sigh before continuing, "honestly we have no idea how it was entered. I place numerous protections and the wards of Hogwarts are at full power. We are at a loss." Sarah mulled over this information carefully.

"Alright I believe you, and I will help you. Harry is exempt from his end of year exams due to being a champion correct?"

"Yes," Dumbledore confirmed.

"Wonderful. I wish to meet with him first thing in the morning, and you can let him bring his friends. If they are anything like mine, they will have his back and my own in coming war. Do you know about Voldemort's horcruxes?"

"Yes I had my suspicions after the Potter incident, and they were confirmed after Chamber of Secrets had been opened in Harry's second year," Dumbledore responded, "How many did he create in your world?"

"Six." Vance turned green and struggled not to puke. Moody and Severus merely paled at the news.

Albus sighed deeply, removed his glasses and began to rub his temples to ward off the incoming headache. "We must assume he made at least that many here as well, can you tell us where they are?"

"Will a copy of my memories suffice?" Dumbledore simply conjured a glass vial and floated it over to Sarah in response to her question. Sarah placed her wand against her temple and began extracting her memories of the horcruxes. She twirled the shimmering grey strand around her wand like a string of spaghetti, depositing it into the offered vial when she was finished.

"I am going to need a list of confirmed and suspected Death Eaters."

"We have a compiled list, Alastor can you get her a copy in the morning?"

"Yes." came his gruff reply.

"I think that covers all of my initial questions, now what questions do you have?"

Severus looked straight into her eyes and said, "Why did you call me uncle?" Sarah just stared at him, not quite understanding why that was what he wanted to know.

"You were my godfather, what else would I call you? Aren't you Harry's godfather?" The other four occupants of the room stared at her.

Severus regained his wits and replied in small voice, "No I am not."

"Oh…" Sarah really didn't know how to respond and an awkward silence filled the room.

Dumbledore cleared his throat and spoke, "Sirius is Harry's godfather in this universe. Why don't you give us an overview of your abilities?"

Sarah shifted slightly in her seat and began explaining, "I am the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts, I am also a qualified Hitwizard. I have an animagus form, a jaguar. Perhaps most importantly, I am an air elementalist." The final piece of information stunned the war veterans, there had not been a confirmed elementalist in one hundred twenty years.

"Are you really?" Dumbledore inquired. In response Sarah infused her magic into the air and created a miniature tornado in her upturned hand. The force of the winds was strong enough to send the paper on Dumbledore's desk whirling around the room. Sarah ceased powering the demonstration after a few seconds.

"Incredible." Vance spoke in awe.


End file.
